Coping with Supervisor Sanctions During Organizational Change: Core Members’ Active Change Behavior and Followers’ Middle Way Thinking

Recent research has shown that an organizational change implementation tactic is vital for influencing employee reactions to change. Hard tactics, such as supervisor sanction, are generally verified as obstructive to employees’ positive change behavior. The aim of this study is to identify the contingency circumstances under which sanction would be less harmful or even effective to change. By identifying the organizational situational influence of core members’ active change behavior and followers’ individual differences of middle way thinking, this study constructed a model that offers insight into the effectiveness of supervisor sanctions during change. Data from 250 employees in China were gathered by questionnaires. Results from hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) revealed that core members’ behavior neutralized the negative effect of supervisor sanctions on followers’ active change behavior. Moreover, this moderating effect was further magnified by followers’ personal middle way thinking value. The conclusions emphasized the roles of core members’ supportive behavior to change, which acts as role model, and of the individual middle way thinking values that have sustained Eastern Asia for thousands of years in successfully implementing change. The findings provide insights for the successful implementation tactics in organization change and enrich the understanding of the organizational change process. Research should continue to treat followers’ change reactions as a synergy output of situational factors and individual characteristics and examine the variables of these dimensions in the work environment.